Culinary foek and spoon



NITEI) STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANDREW HILLS, OF NAUGATUCK, CONNECTICUT.

CULINARY FORK .AND SPOON.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 27,802, dated April 10, 1860.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDREW HILLS, of Naugatuck, in the county of NewI-Iaven and State of Connecticut., have invented a Combined VegetableFork and Ladle-Tongs; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being' had to theaccompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which-Figure 1 represents a perspective view of my invention. Fig. Q is a sideview of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in bothfigures.

The object of this invention is to facilitate the removal of vegetables,etc., from a pot of boiling water. It is to be made so as to` grasp andhold such articles firmly, and at the same time so that it will notinjure them, such for instance as potatoes and turnips, that frequentlyfall to pieces when it is attempted to remove them from a boiler, whilethe water is steaming, with a fork or ordinary spoon; the o-peration isditlicult and the hands are frequently hurt, on account of the slowmanner of removing them.

My invention consists in combining two ladles, or spoon-shaped tongs,with a fork, and in constructing them of two pieces of suitable steelwire, bent up in a novel manner, and attachedto a handle, in such a waythat strength and elasticity are suitably combined, a guide and tongueis formed for preventing lateral movement of the ladle arms, and theutensil is formed in a complete, light and exceedingly cheap manner, soas to be handy and conveniently used as will be hereinafter describedand represented.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand my invention Iwill proceed to describe its construction and operation.

In the drawings A, A represent two pieces of wire, round or square, of asuitable size and possessing the requisite elasticity.

B is the handle or block to which both pieces of wire are secured, aswill be hereinafter described. These three pieces A, A, and B, serve toform the utensil in question, when shaped as follows: The two wires arecut nearly of the same length, and the ladles are formed by coiling thewire up and pressing it down in the center, as represented in Fig. 1, byC, C, which forms two concave spiral holders or ladles; the wires arethen bent at right angles to the ladles, and drawn out straight for somedistance forming portions D, D, the wire of portion D, is then bent atright angles, carried down a suitable distance and bent short around andcarried back to the straight portion D, again, and this forms a tongueor guide E, which is curved slightly, twisted at one end, next the wireD, and bent so as to form a short stop piece or hook at the other end.The wire D, at the point opposite this tongue is bent around the tongueforming an elongated eye E, through which the tongue plays, and whichkeeps the tongue with its arm D, in proper position. The two wires D, D,are then continued on, bent up at a., b, forming portions for thelingers to rest on for operating the ladles, and, at a suitable distancefrom the ladles, they are coiled up so as to form springs Gr, G, whichtend to keep the ladles spread apart. At th-ese points and just in rearof the springs G, G, the wires are passed through holes cut into thewood handle B,-as clearly represented by Fig. 2,-and drawn out andpassed along the edges of the handle, which has slots cut into it toreceive the wires. After passing over the handle the two wires are thenbrought together and twisted together, as shown at c, then spread apart,curved up and sharpened on their ends forming a two-pronged fork J,which will answer all ordinary requirements, and many useful purposes.In this manner and out of two pieces of wire, and a small block of wood,with two holes bored into it, I construct a very useful culinary utensilcombining both a fork and tongs, which, with proper tools, may be madefor a very trifling cost.

I do not claim a combined ladle and fork when the same are usedconjointly for on-e and the same purpose at the same time; nor do Iclaim the several parts irrespective of their arrangement andconstruction; but

That I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is

The double ladle C, C, tongue and eye E, E', springs G, Gr', handle B,and fork J, when the same are constructed and arranged as representedand described, constituting a new article of manufacture.

ANDREW HILLS.

Witnesses:

CALVIN A. HoToHKIss, DAVID SMITH.

